VATICAN CITY — A room full of world leaders gathered in the Vatican to share strategies, research, and, in some cases, make news on the topic of climate change.
Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey was no exception.
In a passionate address to more than two dozen leaders Wednesday, Healey announced a first-of-its kind fund to support workforce training in the climate tech sector — a union of her twin promises to boost the state’s economy and workforce needs while accelerating the state’s work on combating climate change.
The fund will provide no-interest loans to people enrolled in training programs for climate sector jobs, and would cover student needs such as child care and transportation. The Healey administration said their aim is for the fund to reach $10 million, but they did not provide a timeline for when they expect it to reach that goal.
“The heroes of this revolution will be the electricians, train operators, heat pump installers, wind turbine technicians, and much more,” Healey said. “We don’t have to choose between a healthy economy and climate protection.”
Wednesday’s announcement is the latest climate-related ambition Healey has pitched since taking office. Her inaugural address in 2023 announced a series of climate objectives: doubling wind and solar energy production, quadrupling energy storage, putting a million electric vehicles on Massachusetts roads.
In her speech to leaders in Vatican City, she elevated her message — and the state’s obligation to get to net zero emissions by 2050— to the world’s stage.
“In Massachusetts, getting to net zero by 2050 is not just the law. It’s a social and economic imperative that informs everything we do,” she said from her seat, where she was positioned between Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency Deanne Criswell and Massachusetts climate chief Melissa Hoffer. “Like our aging infrastructure, our government systems were not designed to meet the scale and the urgency of this moment. So we need to change the way we work.”
The new fund, dubbed the Massachusetts Climate Careers Fund, will be led by Social Finance, a national nonprofit that was founded in Boston. The fund would be re-filled as workers and employers pay back the interest-free loans with income from their new climate jobs or from their employers directly, she said.
The fund, which will raise all its money from yet-to-be-named philanthropic donors, according to a Social Finance spokesperson, will provide interest-free loans for people in existing state-funded training programs. The loans will help cover tuition, transportation, childcare and other needs of those hoping to join the climate tech workforce.
According to the Healey administration, the state needs to train 34,000 more workers for climate sector jobs by 2030 in order to meet the state’s legally mandated greenhouse gas reduction goals.
The governor hopes by bringing in private matching dollars from donors to the new fund, the state can give a boost to workforce programs the state already runs, such as free community college through MassReconnect or a grant program mean to boost the number of students of color who want to enter the green job workforce across the state.
In an interview outside a 16th-century patrician villa in Vatican City, now home to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, Healey said the idea for the fund came about earlier this year, when the governor, Hoffer, and Social Finance CEO Tracy Palandjian were having a conversation at the home of Boston philanthropists James and Cathleen Stone.
“We need the trained workforce on all things climate, and [Palandjian] has the financing model that will enable us to make that happen,” she said. “So just through a series of conversations that came to be, and we’re really excited about what we’re able to announce, you know, it’s first of its kind, I think it’s the right model . . . I think it’s exactly what we need.”
The three-day conference marks the kickoff to a three-year initiative led by University of Massachusetts Boston to develop new approaches to solving the climate crisis. State and local leaders gathered in a well-preserved stucco villa, nestled within the lush private gardens of the Vatican City, to highlight the effects of rising temperatures in their communities and discuss ways to adapt to a warming climate.
In her address, Healey ticked off some of the state’s firsts when it comes to the climate sector: installing the nation’s first cabinet-level climate chief, housing the first utility-scale offshore wind farm, creating the first green bank to fund climate friendly affordable housing. She highlighted a spending bill she filed that calls for a $1.3 billion-dollar investment in climate technology and Massachusetts research universities that have led the way on innovative startup companies working in the climate sector.
But she also acknowledged the realities of the warming climate, recalling last year’s destructive floods that burst riverbanks, overwhelmed drainage systems, and damaged hundreds of farms just before harvest time.
“Weather events are more severe and frequent, more damaging than ever before,” she said. “Sea levels are rising.”
While relief money made it to those effective and farmers recovered for the next season, she said it called attention to “what these events were telling us.”
She acknowledged the speech’s venue at the Vatican, where leaders have long gathered to address their most pressing problems.
Healey and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, who is slated to speak later in the conference, are two of a handful of speakers to address the leaders attending the event, which is supported by $50,000 in grant funding from the UMass Foundation.
According to the university, no public funds from UMass Boston were used for the event, nor were any additional resources or staff time.
The summit, hosted entirely within the sprawling splendor of the Vatican complex, is funded by philanthropic grants and is also supported by the Vatican itself.
Francis is the first pope to elevate climate change as a top concern, making a moral call to Catholics worldwide to reduce emissions for the sake of future generations.
Critical of the lack of urgent action, the Pope called climate deniers “foolish” in his first interview on U.S. television last week.
“We gather in this room, on this holy ground, where others have gathered in times of challenge, where others have gathered seeking answers, understanding and resolve,” said Healey, who identified herself as a Catholic in a 2018 Globe column. “This is our time, this is our work.”
Matt Stout of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
Samantha J. Gross can be reached at samantha.gross@globe.com. Follow her @samanthajgross.
